By Category

Packers May Release DE Mike Neal After Draft

According to Pro Football Weekly, the Packers may release defensive end Mike Neal sometime after the 2012 NFL draft.

Although it is not a given, our Packers sources will not be shocked in the least if the team releases injury-prone DE Mike Neal after the draft. The announcement that Neal will be suspended for the first four games of the 2012 season for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances certainly isn’t helping his chances of remaining on the roster, we hear.

A second-round pick of the Packers in 2010, Neal has played in just nine career games in two NFL seasons. He has recorded just six tackles and one sack over that span, with injuries to both his knee ('11, nine games) and shoulder ('10, 14 games) limiting the 6-3, 294-pound defensive end.

A four-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy will ensure Neal makes it three years in a row not playing a full season.

The Packers have signed two players along the defensive line this offseason—Daniel Muir and Tony Hargrove—and are likely to invest at least one pick at the position in the draft. While you'd like to think the Packers would give such a young player—Neal is just 24 years old—one last chance at salvaging his career in camp, it's possible the team could be so fed up with the defensive end that they are willing to move on once more reinforcements arrive.

As GM Ted Thompson found out with 2007 first-round pick Justin Harrell, patience and potential can only go so far for keeping a player on the roster. Neal's future in Green Bay appears to be in similar doubt.

Fan friendly comments only: off
Comments (42)
This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.

Not very surprising. As many have mentioned around here, the knee injury is very disconcerting. The suspension gives them a guilt-free "out." It's like finding out a girlfriend that you've been cheating on was also cheating on you.

If the team is feeling a sense of urgency to get some more rings, let's do it. This window will only be open for so long and we don't have the time or the money to wait for Neal to get his s**t together.

Based on the reports about cartilage removal, and the season end interviews -- he's hurting.

About the only thing you can do to regenerate cartilage is micro-fracture surgery. A huge fraction don't play after that surgery, and a big fraction of those that do play have a marked drop-off.

If the Packers keep him, he won't get snaps in camp because they'll need to develop others since he'll be out for the first four games. (Does anyone know if he could participate in camp, with a suspension looming?) I think the injury and lack of action would make him a non-factor for the coming season.

I think there would be limitations/snap-counts on his play, with that injury he'd be liable for tendonitis and arthritis.

Don't know who fits Caper's scheme but some possible DL help in rounds 3-4 are DE's-Malik Jackson, Jaye Howard, Trevor Guyton, Tyrone Crawford, or NT Josh Chapman.
And here's a small school sleeper; Old Dominion DT Ronnie Cameron. He has Cullen Jenkins size and w/ his quickness I wonder if he could provide a pass rush like Cullen...and it sounds like he's "Packer People".http://www.gbnreport.com/scoutsnotebook.htm

I would agree that Neal is no lock to make the final roster. But I think there is very little chance he won't make it through to camp. The Packers are just too thin up front to not take one more look. Even if somebody they really like falls into their lap in round 1.

Yeah right! The packers gave Johnny Jolly tenure even after his whole purple dranl fiasco. THERE IS NO CHANCE, I REPEAT, NO CHANCE THAT THE PACKERS RELEASE NEAL!! When are we gonna learn that Thompson will always make the opposite decision that we think he will make???

But I'm not sure how the PUP list works with a suspension. I'd have to think the suspension wouldn't start until he came off the PUP list, in which case you're talking basically another completely lost season.

Montgomery Ward. The Packers released a statement indicating they are cutting ties with Montgomery Ward and going with Sears instead. Packers officials indicated that overall quality and brand recognition were overriding factors in the decision.

Cripes. CJ Wilson. I was mixing Wilson up in my head with Michael Montgomery. Cut after 2010. Sorry. For that matter I'd probably cut Wynn before Neal as well. That's what I get for posting while, er, my wife is driving.

You know what Oppy - I think you might be right on Wilson. I was re-watching a couple games last night and I was struck how much better he played than I remembered. I don't think he'll ever be a starter, but he's got some value as a rotational player.

I had someone working for me who showed some real potential but after three years and many screw-ups it was time to move on. My only regret was getting hung up on the "potential" and waiting three years for nothing.

Quote

"I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious."